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A Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. shareholder on Thursday filed a request
for a NIS 2 billion class-action lawsuit against the company, claiming it gave
misleading information about the publication of the results of the Phase III
clinical trial of its oral multiple sclerosis treatment, Laquinimod.

In
the statement of claim, the claimant says Teva on Monday had notified the Tel
Aviv Stock Exchange it would present new information about the results of a
study on drugs and treatments for multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease,
among other things. He says the notice had stated the information would be
presented at the American Association of Neurology Annual Meeting in Honolulu,
Hawaii.

The claimant says 30 percent of Teva’s revenue comes from its
multiple sclerosis treatments, especially sales of Copaxone, which totaled $3.3
billion in 2010. Since the Copaxone market has been opened to competition, which
will severely affect Teva’s sales, Teva began development of Laquinimod to
compensate for the drop in its profits and to keep its share of the market for
multiple sclerosis drugs, it says.

Teva first presented to the 5,000
participants at the conference a synopsis of the results of the clinical trials
without notifying the public, thereby contravening its notice to the TASE, which
stated that the information would be published at later dates, the claimant
says. As a result, he says, participants at the conference had obtained an
unfair advantage over other Teva shareholders, and rumors spread about the
results of the trial, which caused Teva’s share price to fall 3.4%.

The
claimant says Teva lent its hand to a situation in which crucial information
that could substantially affect the value of its shares was liable to leak, as
in fact happened, in a manner that would cause it to be abused, as in fact
happened.

Teva was negligent and as a result had misled investors, he
says.

“Teva acts, including in this case, in accordance with the
Securities Law and reporting requirements that apply to it,” Teva said in
response. “Teva has not received the statement of claim, and when it arrives,
Teva will study it. On the face of it, however, based on information published
in the media, it appears that the lawsuit and request to recognize it as a
class-action suit are baseless.”

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